AS A DIED in the wool-petticoats southern girl, I am a connoisseur, devotee and avid fan of Deviled Eggs—a staple of Southern Sunday picnics

Be the darling of Easter Brunch with Angry Bird Deviled Eggs!

and countless Cotillion brunches.

And being an Easter enthusiast, I’m celebrating by taking a short break from finishing Morgue File, aka—The Book That Dang Near Killed Me, to cook, bake, craft and otherwise make merry while my writing elves go do whatever it is they do when they’re not helping.

Now here’s the thing. I’ve made deviled eggs disguised as Easter egg chicks for the past several years with a rousing success. But this year, I’m melding my cute little deviled egg chicklets with another of my strange obsessions—Angry Birds!

I dare you to gaze upon these fluffy tidbits of Easter heaven and not make a beeline to the egg carton armed with a soup spoon and a kitchen timer . . .

Angry Bird Deviled Eggs—Just in Time for Easter!

Eggs

Mayonnaise

Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Black Olives

Carrots

Red Food Coloring

Scissors

Mixing Bowls

Measuring Cups/Spoons

Roll Up Your Sleeves:

1) Boil your eggs (* for the perfect boiled egg every time, see below)

2) Chop, Chop – While your eggs are cooling, peel your carrots and cut them lengthwise—or do what I do, chop the tip off of teeny tiny baby carrots. Immerse in cold water and set aside, then drain your black olives and cut ‘em into small square pieces to create the bird eyes. For your Angry Bird, cut two long, thick strips of olives for his eyebrows.

3) Peel Out! – Once your eggs are cool, peel ‘em, being careful not to tear or knick your eggs.

Once peeled, run your eggs under cool water to eliminate any lingering shells. Using a sharp knife and cutting board, slice a thin layer off the bottom of your eggs so that they will stand upright.

Next, cut the tops off of your eggs a little less than halfway down the egg. Set the tops aside. These will be used for the tops of your hatching Angry Chicklets. Carefully remove the yolks from the bottoms of your eggs and place in a mixing bowl.Tip: Squeeze gently to remove the yolks.

4) Filling - Using your deviled egg recipe, mash your egg yolks and combine the remaining ingredients to make the deviled filling. Salt and pepper to taste. Set a small portion of your filling aside in a small bowl. This extra filling will be used to create your Angry Bird. Using a small spoon, fill your eggs with your prepared deviled filling. Fill one of your eggs only halfway to use for your Angry Bird and set aside. Tip: Dessert spoons or baby spoons work great for filling eggs.

5) Face Off – Take the tops of your eggs you set aside in Step 3. Using a *clean* pair of kitchen scissors (I have cooking scissors, sewing scissors, paper scissors and dog-hair scissors, so it’s important not to confuse them), and cut small triangles from the bottom to form the broken eggshell hats of your Non-Angry Bird hatchlings.

Place the trimmed egg hats on top of your filled shells. Next, poke in your olives and carrots you prepared in Step 2. Begin placing two olive eyes and one carrot beak onto each of your filled eggs until you’ve created a face on all your eggs.

6) The Angry Bird – To create your Angry Bird, use the small portion of deviled filling and half-filled egg you set aside in Step 4. Add red food coloring to your filling and mix until it has the vibrant red color you are looking for.

Next, take your remaining egg bottom and spoon in the red deviled, pulling up slightly with a small twist of the spoon to create spiked hair.

Use a tooth pick to add two fairly large dollops of mayonnaise to create the whites of the eye. Add your carrot beak.

Next, place two olive eyes in the center of the eye whites, close to your beak to give this little guy his angry look.

To finish, place the two olive strips you cut in Step 2 at a slight angle above your eye whites.

Serve and stand back while your flock devours the Angry Birds!

*Perfect Boiled Eggs Every Time

It took me years to figure out how to boil the perfect egg. While most instructions say to to cover the eggs with cold water—but take my word for it—they are wrong.

Bring your water to a boil FIRST, then add your eggs. The easiest way to do this is to use a soup spoon — put the egg into the spoon, then lower it carefully into the boiling water.

Make sure your eggs are at room temperature. Otherwise, the shell will split once you lower them into the boiling water, and you’ll have eggwhite leaking from the shell.

Why boil the water first? Because when you put your eggs into boiling water, the hot water will cause the interior of the egg to shrink away from the shell, which makes it really easy to peel.

And isn’t peeling boiled eggs the hardest part? Now you know how to boil an egg — and peel it with ease — every time!

For boiling 10 eggs: after you bring a large pot of water to boil, lower your eggs into it using a soup spoon. Then set your kitchen timer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the water for 5 minutes. Then pour off the hot water and add cold water (I add a coupla cups of ice) to cover the eggs.

After a few minutes, pour off this water and add more cold water. In about 8 minutes your eggs will be cool enough to handle, and they’ll peel perfectly every time.

Tip: Slightly crack all of your eggs and place them back in the cool water for about an hour. This will allow the cold water to get under your shells making your egg peels come right off come peeling time.